A University of Wisconsin-Madison labor licensing committee plans to send a letter to Chancellor David Ward early next week urging him to give Palermo’s Pizza, a sponsor of UW-Madison athletics, a 30-day ultimatum to meet the requests of the company’s striking workers, which include union recognition and priority rehiring.
The Labor Licensing Policy Committee, charged with advising the chancellor on issues concerning labor rights violations, decided to send the letter in a meeting Wednesday due to a recent labor rights dispute in which Palermo’s employees were allegedly fired in June after attempting to unionize and protesting poor working conditions.
According to LLPC member and Student Labor Action Coalition spokesperson Lingran Kong, Palermo’s workers have reported working hours violations—some working as much as seven days a week for four consecutive months—as well as safety concerns.
Kong said these testimonies suggest Palermo’s management is willing to overlook labor rights to produce as many pizzas as possible.
“The daily quota is only 30,000, but they have days where they’re producing up to 90,000 pizzas,” Kong said. “That’s why a lot of these health concerns have come up.”
Kong said she felt there was ample evidence for the committee to recommend the university take action as a result of these complaints.
Teaching Assistant Association co-president Charity Schmidt, one of approximately 10 students who attended the meeting in solidarity with Palermo’s workers, encouraged the committee to ask the university to adhere to a timeline in making its request, saying time is of the utmost importance to the displaced workers.
Everett Mitchell, the university’s director of community relations, said the chancellor would like to have more precise information about the issue, adding that it is “definitely on his radar.”
The LLPC also discussed the university’s ongoing lawsuit with adidas over the controversial shutdown of an adidas-contracted Indonesian factory that left nearly 2,800 workers unemployed and owed due severance in January 2011. Three more alleged labor violations by adidas-contracted factories in Honduras, China and Nicaragua recently surfaced and the committee plans to investigate if any of the three factories produced UW-Madison collegiate apparel.
